Unionists and Republicans reached an agreement on Thursday 17 June to maintain shared governance in Northern Ireland, with a representative from each camp at the head of the local executive, avoiding a new crisis in the British province facing tensions post-Brexit.

This agreement between the DUP, attached to maintaining within the United Kingdom, and Sinn Fein, in favor of reunification with Ireland, was reached shortly after midnight following intense discussions under the aegis of the British Minister in charge. from Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis.

>> To read: How Brexit created "endless tensions" and an impasse in Northern Ireland

Unionist Paul Givan, 39, a fundamentalist Protestant, has been appointed local government prime minister in the Northern Irish Parliament, after being appointed by the new leader of the ultra-conservative DUP Unionist party, Edwin Poots.

Michelle O'Neill, 44, of the Republican Sinn Fein Party, is back in the post of Deputy Prime Minister.

Faced with Paul Givan who stressed, after his appointment, that the two camps had to recognize that they had more "in common" than differences, Michelle O'Neill warned that the two camps were "not on the same line. concerning the issue of Brexit (...) against which a majority of citizens radically voted "in the 2016 referendum.

Remove fears of a new crisis

It is the commitment of the British government to legislate this autumn to protect the Irish language, if legislation in this direction is not adopted by then at the local level, which made it possible to unblock the negotiations.

Sinn Fein had made this a prerequisite for any pursuit of cohabitation with the Unionists.

"This will allow the government to re-focus on responding to the issues that really matter to Northern Irish people, such as healthcare, housing, education and employment," said Minister Brandon Lewis. .

>> To read: Brexit: the sausages of discord between London and Brussels

The agreement helps allay fears of a new crisis that had paralyzed Northern Ireland for three years, following the fall of the government amid a financial scandal.

An agreement reached in January 2020 had made it possible to restore the political institutions of the province.

DUP and Sinn Fein must share governance under the Good Friday Peace Agreement of 1998, which ended three decades of bloody "unrest" between Republicans (mostly Catholics) and Unionists (mostly Protestants) .

The crisis this time stemmed from the resignation, as Prime Minister and head of the DUP, of Arlene Foster, 50, in the face of the strong dissatisfaction of her camp on the consequences of Brexit.

Customs controls that do not pass

She was vilified for her powerlessness in the face of the establishment of customs controls for goods from Great Britain, negotiated as part of the Brexit agreement and seen by unionists as an attack on the integrity of the United Kingdom .

"The protocol is a consequence of Brexit, which was supported by the Conservatives and the DUP. Its very purpose is to limit the impact of Brexit on the island of Ireland to protect the Good Friday deal," stressed for her part Michelle O'Neill.

By disrupting trade, these customs provisions applied to the province to prevent the return of a border with the Republic of Ireland and preserve peace have caused renewed tensions in Northern Ireland.

Riots of unprecedented violence in years broke out in early April.  

They are at the heart of a dispute between the British government and the European Union.

Denouncing a "purist" approach of the European Union, London is trying to apply it more loosely, while Brussels calls on it to respect the commitments negotiated within the framework of Brexit.

With AFP

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